Wellington Independen THURSDAY,- JUNE 22, 1871.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3232, 22 June 1871, Page 2

Wellington Independen THURSDAY,- JUNE 22, 1871.

On Tuesday evening, in the Provincial Council, l\lr Milne, one of the members for tho Hutt, incidentally in debate, roundly asserted, of his own hwioledge, that many of the census papers had been filled up "■ most ridiculously and outrageously," and that they were " not at all to be depended upon." No graver charge could possibly have been made — a charge, we take leave to say, which Mr Milne must either retract or prove. He has said either too little ot too much. The penalty for neglecting or refusing to give the information required by law is £20, and while we would not seek to impose on a member of the Proviucial Council the odious office of an informer, we think that, in instances where he saw, through a foolish spirit of bravado, the intentions of the supreme legislature defeated, he should have remonstrated, and, remonstrance failing, he should have informed the proper authorities. A citizen, who sees the law openly defied, and makes no effort to support it, becomes a parficejjs criminis. Possibly (for the hon. member's remarks are not always very audible) he only became aware of this breach of law after it had been committed. His duty, however, is no less clear. As a good citizen, he owes a duty to the state, before which personal scruples or feelings of private friendship ought to give way. It would bo well if, as alleged by him, he knows of " plenty of cases," in which true and correct information was not given in the census papers, that he should select one of the grossest, and give such information as will lead to the correction and punishment of the offender. It is greatly to be deplored that such a state of things should be even reported as existing among our country settlers. If sufficient care and vigilance have not been shown by the General Government in taking the census, cordially as we support their policy and general administration, we shall not hesitate to condemn them. The letter in our columns to-day would lead us to infer that their arrangements have either been defective, or insufficiently carried out. In either case they are much to be blamed ; for, on no previous occasion, was an accurate census of so great importance, and, consequently, never before did the machinery for taking it require greater prevision and supervision. In the absence of further information on the subject, we cannot speak more strongly, but it becomes all the more the imperative duty of Mr Milne and our correspondent to furnish what facts they know to the proper authorities We submit that a care fully- taken census is, in view of the policy inaugurated by the present Government, of paramount importance, and ought to be taken annually. We venture to suggest, that in addition to the penalty of twenty pounds now imposed by the act for inaccurate or no returns, there should be added three months' imprisonment with hard labor. If men are so far lost to a sense of duty, as to fill their papers with " outrageous figures as to crops," as alleged by Mr Milne, a penalty of twenty pounds, recovered in no case that we have heard of, is but a Irutwn fulmen. On the faith of these returns, public works will be entered upon, and if but one defaulter were made to serve for three months in their construction, the data put before the Government of the day would be ever after thoroughly reliable. The Colonial Parliament are to lay down each session what railways, roads, and immigration are required for the ensuing year, and on what basis can they proceed so safely as on the information contained in the census schedules f If the agricultural interest, or any other interest is to receive a temporary piotection, or if particular industries are to be fostered by bonuses from the consolidated fund, accurate statistics ore indispensable to all effective legislation. Not to speak of the capitation and road board allowances, which presume that every head is numbered ; if the credit of the colony is to be utilised on works of colonieation, the extent and direction in which action is to be taken in any one year must necessarily depend upon the statistics of that preceding. Nor are we only to look to the colony. We must remember that we have raised only the first instalment of a great loan, and that our future borrowing will mainly depend on the measure of success which we can show, by reliable figures, has attended its application. We make no doubt that the success of the Colonial Treasurer depended greatly on the amplitude of the information he was enabled to set before capitalists,botb from printed returns and personal explanations. Capitalists, as several of the leading Opposition journals justly forewarned us, do not lend without inquiring into the security ; and, as we must go again into the London market, we must be ready with full and accurate returns as to the increase of our population and the development of our resources. The author of " The Economy of Capital," admittedly the best informed writer on such a subject, speaking of the capitalists in the "City of Gold," remarks : " They have dealings with all the world, and from thence proceeds the power which helps on the civilisation of the globe. The railways which accompany the ceaseless advance of the white race into the prairies of the far west of America, the companies which explore and develop tho resources lof California and Australia, the iron ! roads and irrigating canals which are maturing the prosperity of India, the enterprise which covers with tea-planta-tions the valleys and slopes of the Himalayas, and which cariies our countrymen into new regions everywhere, are created or sustained by the ongoings in this little spot in London. Prosaic- as the operations of the pve cinct are in detail, taken in. the mass

they constitute a grand work, and may be followed as a noble as well as an honorable profession. Daily and hourly it is the business of the occupants to scan in detail the condition of tho world. They weigh the influence of the seasons, they investigate the produce of all manner of harvests — they know tho condition of every mine, the prospects of every railway, the dividends of every company. They are ever feeling the pulse of trade, and watching the course of politics, They ponder the chances for tho maintenance of peace or for the outburst of war. Everything concerns them that affects the " condition of countries or the solvency of governments." While, therefore, we may congratulate ourselves on the distinguished success of the Colonial Treasurer in inspiring the •' city of gold 1 ' with confidence in our future, it becomes the duty of every colonist to show that this confidence is not misplaced, no less by actively assisting in his particular capacity in the development of our resources, than by furnishing, and seeing that others furnish, reliable information to the Government, without which legislation cannot be properly directed, or the credit of the colony cannot be permanently maintained, or beneficially utilised.